Hospital and residential care facilities may provide nurse call systems allowing patients, residents, and/or caregivers (henceforth the system and method will reference actions made by the patient, although one of ordinary skill in the art should recognize that the actions and/or description may apply to any person) to request assistance at times between regularly scheduled rounds. For patients, who may need additional assistance in caring for themselves, the nurse call systems may be augmented with sensing systems that, for instance, indicate that a patient has moved from a chair or bed and thus may need assistance or monitoring. Such systems may, for example, use pressure pads placed in a bed or a chair to indicate that the occupant has risen or similar pads used as floor mats near a bed to detect that the occupant has stepped down onto the floor. Such pads incorporate switches to provide an electrical signal when activated. Tether systems that clip to a patient's clothing, may also be used for monitoring a patient's movement.
These patient-sensing systems may provide an indication, such as a visual indication, a simple buzzer or audio alarm, etc. to signal the caregiver. Such audible systems have limited range and accordingly it is also known to incorporate a radio transmitter into the sensor to provide a signal at a central monitoring unit. The central monitoring unit may provide, for example, a display that may distinguish among multiple different sensor units. For sensor units that are much removed from the central monitoring unit or blocked by radio absorbing materials, radio relays may be used to boost the signal on route to the central monitoring unit.
Wireless central monitoring provides the benefit of allowing a single individual to monitor multiple patients; however, a gap in care can occur when the monitoring caregiver must go attend to a particular patient and leave the central monitoring unit unattended. Locating the particular sensor being activated can be difficult depending on the detail provided by the central monitoring station. In addition, programming the central monitoring unit can be cumbersome, particularly when sensors are changed for a particular patient, for example between the use of a chair pad and bed pad. Current battery powered wireless sensors, while simple to install, require a regular program of inspecting the sensors and recharging their batteries, if indicated, to prevent loss of monitoring capability.